ACS :: Nobel Prize Winners

Research Program & Funding

Nobel Prize Winners

The Society is justly proud of the 44 investigators we supported before they went on to win the Nobel Prize, considered the highest accolade any scientist can receive. This is a tribute to the American Cancer Society's Research Program and the strength of its peer-review process. These scientists range from James Watson, PhD, whose discovery with Francis Crick, MD, of the structure of DNA was the cornerstone of modern molecular biology to E. Donnall Thomas, MD, the father of bone marrow transplantation. Two of the most recent Society-supported grantees to be awarded the Nobel Prize (2009) are Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D. and Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D. Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D. of the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass, was recognized for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D., of Yale University was recognized along with two other researchers for for describing the ribosome and its function.

2009 Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D.	2009 Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D.	2007 Mario R. Capecchi, PhD
2007 Oliver Smithies, PhD	2006 Roger D Kornberg, Ph.D	2006 Craig C. Mello, PhD
2004 Aaron Ciechanover, MD	2004 Avram Hershko, MD, PhD	2004 Irwin A. Rose, PhD
2001 Leland Hartwell, PhD Discovered key regulators of the cell cycle.	1999 Günter Blobel, MD, PhD Discovered how proteins find their proper location in the cell.	1995 Edward B. Lewis, PhD Found evidence that certain patterns in development apply to human cancers.
1994 Alfred Gilman, MD, PhD Helped to understand how cells talk to one another.	1993 Phillip A. Sharp, PhD Showed that readable regions on DNA are separated by some that cannot be read.	1990 E. Donnall Thomas, MD Pioneered bone marrow transplantation.
1989 Sidney Altman, PhD Discovered that RNA can sometimes act as an enzyme.	1989 Thomas R. Cech, PhD Found evidence that RNA may have enzymatic properties in cells.	1989 J. Michael Bishop, MD Discovered latent cancer genes, oncogenes, in normal cells.
1989 Harold E. Varmus, MD Showed that defects in normal genes can cause cancer.	1987 Susumu Tonegawa, PhD Discovered how antibodies are made by cells of the immune system.	1986 Stanley Cohen, PhD Showed that some growth factors influence cancer development.
1980 Paul Berg, PhD Was the first to create a recombinant DNA molecule.	1980 Walter Gilbert, MD Developed a method important for sequencing DNA.	1980 Baruj Benacerraf, MD Contributed to the understanding of the genetic basis of immunology.
1978 Daniel Nathans, MD Discovered enzymes that modify DNA, facilitating the study of genes.	1978 Hamilton O. Smith, MD Discovered DNA splicing enzymes important for genetic engineering	1975 Renato Dulbecco, MD Found that certain animal cancer viruses can insert themselves into a cell's DNA.
1975 Howard M. Temin, PhD Discovered the reverse transcriptase that translates RNA into DNA.	1975 David Baltimore, PhD Found that some RNA viruses can transfere their information to DNA.	1972 Christian B. Anfinsen, PhD. Discovered how enzymes assume their active shapes within the living cell.
1969 Salvador E. Luria, MD Did important work on phages to provide basic knowledge of viruses.	1969 Max Delbruck, PhD Showed how DNA replicates itself and the genetic structure of viruses.	1968 Robert Holley, PhD Determined the structure of transfer RNA, which is important in protein synthesis.
1968 Marshall Nirenberg, PhD Interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.	1966 Charles B. Huggins, MD Demonstrated hormonal dependence of breast and prostate cancer cells.	1966 Francis P. Rous, MD Discovered that cancer can be induced by injecting a tumor extract.
1965 Robert Burns Woodward, PhD Determined how the body uses small compounds to build organic molecules for life’s functions.	1962 James D. Watson, PhD Discovered the double helix structure of DNA.	1959 Severo Ochoa, MD Discovered RNA polymerase, an enzyme that synthesizes RNA.
1958 Edward L Tatum, PhD Reported that mutations can alter nutritional requirements of cells.	1958 George W. Beadle, PhD Provided evidence that for every enzyme there is one gene.	1953 Fritz Lipmann, MD, PhD Discovered an enzyme that helps to convert food into energy.
1946 Wendell M. Stanley, PhD Crystallized viruses, thus demonstrating their structure.	1946 Hermann Joseph Muller, PhD Discovered that x-ray irradiation can produce cell mutations.